Gingrich Not In Kansas Anymore: Will Focus On Alabama and Mississippi Primaries By Rachel Rose Hartman

Reinvigorated by a home state win in Georgia Tuesday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is setting himself up for two more must-wins next Tuesday in Alabama and Missississippi as he seeks to lay claim to the south.

"This race has been a roller coaster up and down," Gingrich told a Jackson, Miss. audience Friday morning, drawing a roller coaster's trajectory with his finger-- completing a metaphor he's adopted on the stump. "I believe with your help next Tuesday when we win here and we win in Alabama we'll be back up again."

In a signal of how much stock the campaign is placing in Mississippi and Alabama, Gingrich cancelled a day-long campaign swing through Kansas--which votes in caucuses this Saturday--to instead campaign in the two states.

Gingrich is running at a financial disadvantage to Romney and has therefore been carefully picking his targets, risking a loss of momentum by sitting out difficult races such as primaries Feb. 28 in Michigan and Arizona.

Gingrich's campaign continues to contend that Romney isn't a "convincing" or able frontrunner. In an interview with Yahoo News on Super Tuesday, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said Romney continues to fail to excite the base. "He's not offering solutions," Hammond said. He also argued that Gingrich continues to show grassroots donor strength, which will translate into votes in upcoming states, unlike Romney, who he said was funded by wealthy corporate donors and others who have "maxed out" their support.

But Gingrich's chief opponent in Tuesday's contests is not Romney, who has not been very successful at wooing conservatives and is not expected to fare well in Mississippi and Alabama. It's Rick Santorum Gingrich must contend with if we wants to add...

Perry’s endorsement of Gingrich in TX may be the kiss of death, since he’s ratings in TX have taken a nose-dive. On the other hand, Gingrich’s pro-amnesty (amnesty for grandmothers) position might bring him the Hispanic vote.

I'm going to the Kansas Caucus tomorrow. I was undecided about which of the two non-Romneys I was going to support. I take this as a concession by Newt that Kansas isn't going his way. I like Newt a little better than Santorium but I have no issue with supporting Santorium rather than Myth or the Crazy Uncle.

Remember the key in the next few weeks is to deny the nomination to Romney. I'll take my chances in a brokered convention. There is no reasonable candidate who could emerge who would be as bad as Romney.

6
posted on 03/09/2012 11:43:19 AM PST
by CommerceComet
(If Mitt can leave the GOP to protest Reagan, why can't I do the same in protest of Romney?)

The real problem for Gingrich is that he hasn’t figured out that these little teeny tiny Saturday caucuses dominate the news cycle going into the Tuesday primary votes -and the easiest way for him to win AL and MS would have been to blanket Kansas with ads and appearances.

Your take as to why not KS but why instead more MS and AL could be wrong.

Newt chose to put pedal to the metal in GA. By doing that he garnered a smattering in OK and TN but upped his GA totals. He tried to maximize his GA prize, in other words.

His stated reason about KS was in order to concentrate on the two neigboring states that vote Tuesday. I think his strategy appears to be similar to his GA strategy...how much can he win the other states by, assuming he does win them.

More productive than including KS on his itinerary and expense list, might be his call on it.

If I recall correctly, Newt was formerly behind in those states, now rising in those states.

In delegates Newt is ahead in hard delegates, as soft ones are not counted at this point because they are not bound by convention rules to vote for a particular candidate. Santorum has some soft delegates, and Santorum is facing delegate difficulties down the road, as well.

Rick Santorum’s delegate woes: Trying hard in some states; in others, not so much

Look for FOX and the other Republican establishment media outlets to really buck up Gingrich over the next few days. If Santorum pulls Kansas that will be a problem. They must resuscitate Gingrich to fend off Santorum because Santorum is Romney's last remaining problem that hasn't quite been eliminated. Once Santorum’s gone we can all lock arms, sing “We are the world”, and enjoy our national health care.

19
posted on 03/09/2012 12:31:27 PM PST
by throwback
( The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.)

You are correct that the national media will talk about KS all weekend. It is also correct that Newt will blanket local media in AL and MS and explain why he is doing as he is doing. He cares about the South and shares a cultural closeness with Southern Americans that gives him a likeability factor there that Romney and Santorum simply don’t share.

This angle of being a ‘regional’ candidate is only as strong as the individual candidate’s ability to make a case across all the regions. Romney won Michigan, Massachusetts, Vermont, all states we could lose in the general and still win the presidency. No way we win if we can’t take Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama. Romney took Florida only because of a coordinated media attack on Newt together with the establishment GOP last month on ‘Black Thursday’. Romney’s strength in the primarys is contrived. Santorum cannot defeat Newt head-on in those states.

The AL and MS results are crucial and in a tough situation, worth going after, even at the near-term expense of Kansas.

I hope it works, but Santorum has created a bigtime campaign out of the tiniest and most insignificant (numerically speaking) wins. He wins the tiny Saturday thing and for some reason it impacts the big Tuesday things. Amazing how folks in this country do not have any grasp of demographic reality.

Your take as to why not KS but why instead more MS and AL could be wrong.

Perhaps. However, it has been my observation in following politics for almost 50 years that withdrawing resources is almost always a sign of concesssion. If MS and AL were the prize along, why did Newt put resources in KS to begin with?

28
posted on 03/09/2012 2:43:16 PM PST
by CommerceComet
(If Mitt can leave the GOP to protest Reagan, why can't I do the same in protest of Romney?)

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